DAY SIX
My blind sits partially in a tree on the bank of a large waterhole. There is a salt block on the bank below and to my left outside of the back of the blind (the side towards the water), and at the top of the bank, on which the road runs along, is a game block, which I can see through a hole in the other side of the blind. Across the bank is a relatively large open area with trees, but little or no grass. Shortly after getting situated, a cow and calf waterbuck enter the water on the far side of the waterhole to drink. A nice sable bull somehow has snuck in and is now bedded in the open area, next to the brush on the far side from me. A big wildebeest bull wanders by the sable, continuing on to the waterhole and a mud wallow about 100 yards down the shore from the blind. After about 15 minutes of rolling in the mud, he walks off directly away from me.
Shortly thereafter, a herd of at least 10 Cape buffalo pass along the far side of the open area, pushing the sable out of his bed, and down to the waterhole. While I’m sticking my camera out of the back hole of the blind to get the following picture of him, I see that the wildebeest has circled back around and is now staring at me! Oh well. He decides to go back to his mud hole.
A group of kudu cows, calves and young bulls show up and start working over the game block. Eventually a cow barks, and the place is empty! They return about 40 minutes later, and another group joins them. There are at least 18 or 20 now, pushing, shoving and horning each other for a turn at the game block; at times it got pretty physical. All this time there have been warthogs coming and going, as well as a trio of red hartebeests. One of the warthogs is a monster of a boar – the biggest I would see at Melorani - with very long, heavy tusks that made almost a full half circle. He is rooting around in the open area across the road after drinking out of range from me.
All of a sudden the young kudu bull that had current possession of the block, as well as the surrounding cows, quickly backed away. A nice bull walks up to the block from out of my sight to the right. He is not as big as those I saw on days 1 and 3, but a good representative of the species, and he has a really nice cape, with long manes, particularly below his neck, with red coloring, and a dark muzzle that really showed off his white chin and chevron. I decide that he is for me. The problem, however, is that the cows have pushed the block down the bank, so all I see is the bull’s head and neck as he works on it facing uphill. Every 5 minutes or so he returns to the top of the bank to have a look around and check the wind. Although he is broadside to me at these times, the cows move in closer for a shot at the block and ruin any opportunity for a shot.
THIS GOES ON FOR NEARLY 3 HOURS!!!!
During this time the big warthog (remember him) has come back for a drink and is standing 10 yards outside of the back window. However, I am now too far from the window for a shot at him, because I have been moving up to keep the game block in sight out of the front window. The bull kudu eventually has had enough and moves 50 yards down the road, and the other kudu begin to move off.
Seemingly out of nowhere the wildebeest is back, this time at the salt block outside of the back window. I’m still hoping to get a shot at the bull kudu now that the cows have mostly left, so I pass. He moves off, but a short while later is back at the salt block. I figure a sure shot at him is better than waiting for an unlikely-to-happen-now shot at the kudu. I had a 750-gr footed arrow on the string tipped with a 160-gr STOS BH that I had reserved for my kudu. It was now on its way towards the wildebeest. To my horror, the arrow catapulted into the air and back at me the instant it struck. The bull wildebeest charged off, and I couldn’t believe my eyes as I could see that the arrow had broken off an inch behind the BH. Upon examination of the arrow it was clear that it had gotten no more than 2” of penetration. So much for footed arrows being able to take a beating!
After Stewart came by to have a look, it was clear that the bull was not mortally injured by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of moving, I elected to sit at this blind for the rest of the day. When I finally got settled down and was able to put the $850 or so that I had just wasted out of my mind, I caught a movement out of the back window – the kudu bull was back!
He drank, but then moved along the far side of the waterhole, back to the area he had originally approached from, and down wind of me as well. I figured that was that! Within a few minutes, however, a group of 5 smaller kudu bulls showed up at the game block (which I had moved back up the bank before getting back into the blind). About 10 minutes later they scattered, as “my” bull approached along the same path as before. Now, the whole scenario I had with the kudu cows before was repeated, with the younger bulls now blocking my shots! This went on for about an hour. As I sat waiting for my opportunity, I began to lose some confidence as a stared back and forth between the kudu and the 2-bladed STOS-tipped arrow I had on the string – just like the one I had fired off at the wildebeest! I finally said to myself “screw it”, and slowly reached over and pulled a Woodsman-tipped arrow out of my quiver (this is the BH I use exclusively in the U.S., but I was swayed by all of the 2-bladed hype, and so equipped half of my Africa arrows with STOS heads). Not long afterwards my time came.
I watched the arrow strike a few inches low, at what would be a broadside heart shot on a deer. As he began to run, I watched in what seemed like slow motion as the shaft cracked and broke as his front leg moved back. Unfortunately, as I looked (again in horror) at the length of the arrow shaft on the ground, it did not look like I had gotten enough penetration. At 60 yards he stopped, standing broadside to me, and I could see the wound, but no blood! Thinking I had hit his front leg bone and only inflicted a $1500 flesh wound, I almost flipped when he tipped over, flopped several times, and then lay still. As I examined the arrow shaft afterwards, it was clear that, as the bull started to run, the arrow had been pushed most of the way back out before being broken, after going through the chest cavity, hitting heart and lung. A 21-yard shot – the same distance I had passed on at the big kudu bull on day 1!
Crime scene photos:
I was happy!
Topic: 08 Melorani Reports (Read 10142 times)
